Police checkpoint gets dangerous drivers off the roads

Newton Police Department, along with Hickory, Conover and N.C. Highway Patrol wrote a combined 44 tickets and made four arrests during a weekend checkpoint.

The brigade of 13 officers met at the Newton Police Department met Saturday, Sept. 29 at 10 a.m. and began to conduct a checkpoint at 11 p.m. that lasted until 2 a.m. The checkpoint was located on U.S. 70 near the Hickory American Legion Fair Grounds. The city of Newton also provided cones for the checkpoint. The cones blocked both inside lanes while police vehicles occupied the center turning lane.

“We had well over 100 cones that funneled traffic in both eastbound and westbound lanes,” Newton Police Officer Brian Cloninger said. “The cones help to make the checkpoints safer.”

To read more of this story, pick up the Wednesday edition of Catawba County's community newspaper, The Observer News Enterprise, at newsstands throughout the county.